SPORTSBIZ -- KEVIN KLEPS

Oddsmakers take a liking to Kyrie

If you were in a place where sports betting is legal, say Las Vegas, would you place a wager — or three — on Irving for this weekend's NBA All-Star festivities in Houston?

According to the sports betting website Bovada, Irving is the favorite to be named MVP of the Rising Stars Challenge on Saturday.

If Bovada is correct, Shaquille O'Neal did a much better job than Charles Barkley during the draft of first- and second-year players that was televised last week on TNT.

Team Shaq has a pair of point guards — the Cavaliers' Irving and the Trail Blazers' Damian Lillard — who are the favorites to win Rising Stars MVP at 13-2 and 7-1, respectively.

Denver's Kenneth Faried, the lone member of Team Chuck in Bovada's top five, has the third-best odds at 8-1, followed by Team Shaq members Kemba Walker of Charlotte and Klay Thompson of San Antonio at 9-1.

Cavaliers rookie Dion Waiters and Rockets second-year forward Chandler Parsons have the ninth-best odds to be named Rising Stars Challenge MVP at 16-1.

Cavs forward Tristan Thompson is tied with four players for 11th at 18-1 odds, and rookie Tyler Zeller and four others, including 2012 pre-draft darling Harrison Barnes, have the worst chances to be named MVP — 20-1, according to Bovada.

More odds

Irving and the Hornets' Ryan Anderson are 4-1 shots to win the 3-point contest Saturday. Anderson has made a league-high 159 3-pointers this season, but is shooting “only” 40.2% from behind the arc — compared to Irving's 42.5%.

The 3-point favorites are the Warriors' Stephen Curry and the Knicks' Steve Novak, both of whom are making 44.7% of their attempts from downtown this season. Curry, a 5-2 choice by Bovada to win the contest, leads the league with a norm of 3.1 treys per game.

No surprise here: LeBron James (13-2) and Kevin Durant (7-1) are the odds-on favorites to take home All-Star MVP honors on Sunday.

Irving is getting some love from the bookmakers in the showcase event, too. Bovada has given the second-year phenom the ninth-best odds to win All-Star MVP at 15-1 — better than such stars as Dwight Howard and Russell Westbrook.

Spending money to make money

The Tribe on Wednesday said the team reached one-day sales totals that equal what it would normally generate during an average month in the offseason.

Retail sales were up more than 50% on Tuesday — the day after word broke that the Indians had agreed to a four-year, $48 million contract with outfielder Michael Bourn — compared to the same date in 2012.

Traffic to the team's website doubled Monday and Tuesday, compared to the previous week's daily average.

In case you want to get in on the action: Single-game tickets go on sale Monday, Feb. 25, at 10 a.m.

You can follow me on Twitter for sports information, analysis and day-by-day updates on the amount of visitors to Indians.com. OK, everything but the latter.

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